The Freedom Writers Write Again ...

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Jan 08, 2025

Dear Freedom Writers,

(You are receiving this email because you participated in the Freedom Writers in 2024. If you wish to unsubscribe, you may do so at any time.)

In this post:

Ready, Set, Go! - Our new approach, and 3 Actions to get us started.

Take our “Why I Got Up Off the Couch and Took Action.” questionnaire.

Ready …

The Freedom Writers write again! After a much needed break, we’re rested, resolute and ready to take on the Trump Administration!

The DEMS may have lost to Trump in Nov 2024, but we are determined to reverse that in Nov 2026. That’s not going to be easy!

As our first step, we've adopted the words of Nelson Mandala as our mantra,

“I never lose. I either win or learn.”

So, learn we must.

Here are some things that we learned worked really well in 2024:

Building impactful actions. - This was critical in building trust with our volunteers. Trust is the most valuable commodity on the planet. Going forward, we’ll continue to take the time to find actions that really make a difference.
Packaging actions into clearly explained, affordable bundles. - This made it simple for our volunteers to … well, just go ahead and take action! In 2025, our actions won’t take the form of ‘packets,’ but they will be clearly defined and affordable.
Sticking to a predictable schedule. - This allowed our volunteers to plan time for action and get into the habit of doing them regularly. It may take us a few weeks to get fully rolling, but we’ll start with 2 posts a week - on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Each post will include some phone call / postcard actions you can take. Each post’s actions should take you less than 2 hours to do. So gather your supplies, mark your calendars on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and let’s get this party started!
Asking for your feedback. This helped us respond in real time and improve as we went along. We’ll continue to do this because we know, in order to be most effective, we need your input!

And NONE among us will be shocked to hear that some of the things we did in 2024 are simply not going to work in 2025!

This year, sending postcards to voters doesn’t make sense. The wolf is already in the Whitehouse. It’s time to switch tactics.
Like the new Indivisible Guide says, in order to prevail In 2025, we’ll need to CONTACT our elected officials, SHOW them we’re paying attention, APPLAUD them when they stand up for democracy and publicly DECRY them when they don’t. Our primary goal is to develop a relationship with our elected officials. Even if they always vote the way we want them to, we need to show them we appreciate them and we need to balance out the constant barrage of messages they get from MAGA voters.
So, guess what, Freedom Writers! We’re ALL going to have to learn some new skills! I know – ‘OUCH!’

What kind of actions will the Freedom Writers be doing in 2025?

Calling and Writing Actions - We’re going to ask you to call and/or write postcards to your elected officials and other decision makers. You have some choices here, but we’ll show you the most impactful ways to do this. We’ll give you the scripts and some cool postcards you can use for these actions.

Skill Building Actions - Since we’ve mostly been writing postcards to voters up until this point, we’re going to have to read up a bit on how all this law making stuff works.

Small Group Actions - Please consider doing the actions you receive in our posts with a small circle of friends, either in-person or online. You can schedule these meetings ahead of time, based on the post schedule which right now is Tuesdays and Saturdays at 8am.

Why do we want you to work in small groups? Many reasons! First and foremost is this one: fighting Fascism is scary. They want us to feel alone. The more we connect with each other in-person, the more we’ll be able to support, and if need be, protect each other.
Don’t freak out, introverts. (I hear you. I’m an introvert myself.) But, yes, we’d like you to consider inviting a group of friends over to your house (GASP!!)
… Or, if that’s too much, try talking one of your friends into inviting them all over to their house : )
… Or, check out Indivisible’s list of chapters across the country to find one near you: https://indivisible.org/groups
… Or, if that still feels out of reach, ok. Just do these actions on your own or with your family, and we will completely appreciate that.
… Entirely up to you.

Then, once in a while, we’re going to ask you to go and VISIT your legislators/elected officials … Heaven Forbid! You can go with or without your small groups. Don’t worry, we’ll work our way up to that one slowly.

The bottom line is, we’ll do our best to give you the reasons WHY for each of these actions, and YOU DO what you’re comfortable with. And of course, we’ll appreciate everything you do. It takes a nation to protect a democracy.

If we all work together, we can be the change we want to see.

The alternative, afterall, is to be the first generation in American history to lose our democracy … No pressure! : )

Set …

To prepare for action, please do these three things:

Read the INFO SHEET - How to Contact Your Elected Officials. It explains why we recommend calls and postcards over the other options.
If you decide to write postcards instead of calling, you’re going to need to stock up on supplies:
- Postcards - You can get these lots of places, including our “merch partner” YellowDoveStore.com (owned by EB and Billy). Yellow Dove has a line of postcards specifically designed for this purpose. Check them out here: YellowDoveStore.com/collections/freedom-writers.
- Postcard Stamps - You can get your postcard stamps at your local post office, or you can order them online here.
- Gather your elected officials’ contact information from the League of Women Voters. There are many places on the net that provide this information (I tried 7 of them) but the LoWV site is by far the best! Either add the contact information for each of your electeds as contacts on your phone, or just keep the link handy for when you need it.

Go!

Let’s start off with 2 “Contact Your Elected Officials” Actions, and 1 “Show Our Strength” Action - The People’s March in DC (and other places) on 1/18/25.

If possible, please do these actions by the end of day on Friday 1/10/25 because we’ll have a new batch of actions coming out on Saturday, 1/11/25.

Action #1 - For Everyone! Net Neutrality is back on the chopping block. Trump wants to let private companies control who gets connection and access to information (and who doesn’t) instead of treating the internet as a utility. We killed this effort before, but it’s now back like a zombie! [Link to Action Sheet 1]

Action #2 - If you live in Massachusetts - Help immigrants and pregnant women from unauthorized high-tech Location Tracking in Massachusetts. Yes, this is where we are. Frightening! [Link to Action Sheet 2]

Action #3 - For everyone! - Make a plan to go to the The Peoples March in DC (or one of the sister marches near you) on 1/18/25. These marches are organized by the same group that organized the Women’s March of 1/21/2017 when an estimated 200,000 people attended in Washington, D.C.^[9] and 3,300,000–4,600,000 in the United States^[10]^[9] according to Wikipedia. The Freedom writers believe it’s very important to send a clear message with these marches: We’re not going back, and we’re not going to pre-emptively obey!

The Freedom Writers is happy to share the following letter from Longmeadow resident, Ken Kofner, with you about the People’s March on 1/18/25:

Dear Concerned Friends,
We have a great opportunity to let the next Administration know that the last election was definitely not a mandate and that their Project 2025 programs are in for significant resistance at every turn.
The People's March in DC and Everywhere on January 18th is a great way to be seen and heard and thereby re-join the fight.
A number of us from Western Mass are planning to travel to Washington DC for the 18th. Another number of people I know are attending January 18th marches in multiple states closer to their homes.
If you are in Western Mass, would you consider going to DC for January 18th with a group? If you reply with interest I will let you know what some of us already have planned and share some options and ideas.
Do you know of another group that plans to travel by charter bus? We do not yet have enough people to fill a bus and therefore do have other travel plans. However if you know of another group planning to go by bus perhaps we could cooperate.
Can’t make the trip to DC? Would you consider attending a local People's March event on January 18th? Information about local March locations as well as the DC March can be found at www.peoplesmarch.com.
To share information and ideas about attending the January 18th March in Washington DC please contact me at klopferken@comcast.net.
I have found much truth in the statement "action is the antidote to despair".
Hope you will find a way to join us in action on January 18th!
Ken Klopfer

And lastly, please take our “Why I Got Up Off the Couch and Took Action.” Questionnaire (10 min) This will help us inspire others to take action like YOU HAVE.

This questionnaire simply asks you to share the story of how and why you became politically active. We’ve had a surge in interest in taking action this year. Many people who have never been active before are raising their hand and asking questions. We recognize it’s scary for new people to get started politically active in this age of rage.

But the stakes are high, and your stories are important. Stories have the power to bring us together. Stories are what transform a group of separate individuals into a community.

This is why we Freedom Write.

NEXT PLANNED POST: Sat 1/11/25 8am ET. Go ahead! Put it on your calendar!

New Writing Actions.
Stories from the “Why I Got Up Off the Couch and Took Action” questionnaire.

Thanks for reading this post all the way through. (The first one is always the blabbiest!) We stand and salute you! : )

Thank you for helping us save our democracy,

EB Freed and Billy J

Freedom Writers Inc

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